According to Leonardo, he was proving himself a good artist, one
of his principles being, "when his (an artist's) knowledge and light
surpass his work so that he is not satisfied with himself or his
endeavours, it is a happy omen." [Footnote: Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise
on Painting.]
The work as it stands is a noble one, though darkened by time having
brought out the black pigments used in the shades. The background is an
intricate piece of architecture with vaulted roof, showing that he too
had profited by Raphael's instructions in perspective to Fra
Bartolommeo.
The Virgin is a tender sweet figure; indeed no artist has given more
gracious dignity to womanhood than Albertinelli, although his
detractors say his life showed no great respect for it. Above, the
Almighty is seen in a yellow light with a circle of angels and seraphs
around. It is strange how the realistic painters stopped at nothing,
not even the representation of the eternal in a human form. Is not this
the reason why art ceased about this time to be the interpreter of
religion, and found its true mission in being the interpreter of
nature? Who can draw one soul? How much more impossible then to depict
the incomprehensible soul in which all others have their being? The
utmost we can do is to give the indication of the spirit in the
expression of a face, and that so imperfectly that not two beholders
read it alike.
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